Hard Answers
Hard Answers is a Thieves Guild quest given to the player by Karliah, it begins immediately following the Speaking With Silence quest. Overview *Prerequisite: Speaking With Silence *Quest Giver: Karliah *Reward: Nightingale Blade *Reputation Gain: N/A 'Objectives' *Speak with Enthir *Speak with Calcelmo at the Understone Keep in Markarth *Gain Entry to Calcelmo's Museum **(Optional) Obtain key to Calcelmo's Museum *Obtain Calcelmo's Falmer Translating Guide *Duplicate the writing on Calcelmo's Stone *Return to Enthir *Speak to Karliah 'Walkthrough' #Speak to Enthir at the Inn of Winterhold. #Travel to Markarth and speak to Calcelmo at Understone Keep - He will not grant you access to his research unless you can persuade, bribe, or intimidate him. #Find (or receive through a side-quest from Calcelmo) the key to Calcelmo's Museum on his Alchemy table in the West wing of the Keep. #Go to the East wing of the Keep and enter the Museum, the guard at the door will stop you and tell you that you are not allowed to go in, after the dialogue the guard will not stop you for going into the museum. #When you enter the museum the first part you are allowed to walk around freely in. If you want to steal anything make sure you are sneaking though. In this first area there is many common dwemer artifacts that are found in different dungeons, and there are a couple different book cases with adept difficulty locks with books that you can read. #Make your way up to Calcelmo's Laboratory, from now on you will want to sneak because Calcelmo restricted the laboratory from you and guards will not like seeing you in restricted areas. In the laboratory in an area to the left there is a journal and Spider Control Rod that are worth picking up. After a few moments there will be a guard that will walk through the other two doorways opening them up for the player. Guards seem to be on a set path so try to learn their movements and move around them. #The doorway on the left is barred so you have to take the right path. Find, pickpocket, or pick the master lock into the next area of the laboratory. Two guards will be talking and eventually travel down a hallway. #*Alternately, there is a pullbar on a collumn near where the two guards walk. Pulling the bar activates a spinning blade trap which can be used to kill the guards completely unnoticed. #You can either follow the guards and sneak by to get to the staircase to the next area, or go the opposite path and get to the stairway. Going the opposite way of the guards will lead you to a hallway filled with a gas that will kill you fast if you go into it. Opposite the hallway is a button that you need to step on to clear the path and run through before the gas fills the room again. #Continue along through the next couple of doorways until you see the door leading to the wizard's balcony. In this room there is a Larceny Target called the Dwemer Puzzle Cube, which should be taken to Delvin Mallory for some gold. #When you reach Calcelmo's Tower make your way up to Calcelmo's Stone. If you try to activate it without a roll of parchment and a stick of charcoal in your inventory you will receive an error message. The table in the room behind you has plenty of these. Activate the stone again. #Once you receive the rubbing, Aicantar, 2 guards and the City Captain will enter the tower and you will hear their conversation. His nephew insists that somebody is trying to sabotage his uncle's research, and demands that the guard searches the tower from top to bottom. #*If you kill Calcelmo's nephew he may have a staff that can command dwarven spiders. If not, try to sneak to the staircase below you on your left, climb up and jump on to the torch nearest to the wall. Leap to the ledge that leads to the exit. (Note: The staff (Spider Control Rod) can be found upon first entrance to Calcemo's Laboratory through the first door on the left, but must be stolen. If taken, Calcemo's nephew will not have another copy of the staff.) #*Killing the guards and Calcelmo's nephew seems to give no bounty. #*Once you get out of the room with Calcelmo's nephew you will be back out on the balcony between the tower and the museum. You will find you cannot fast travel from that point despite being outside. If you want to avoid sneaking through the museum again (provided you stole the key rather than earning it), you can squeeze between a rock on your left as you are looking at the tower staris and a wall. Follow this down to a nice view of the waterfall and drop into the pool below. Your compass will point in this direction, implying that it was the path you were supposed to use to escape. You will be back in Markarth. #Head back down to Markarth. #Return to Enthir and Karliah at The Frozen Hearth's cellar in Winterhold. 'Journal Entry upon completing the quest' After Enthir successfully translated Gallus's journal, I've discovered that Mercer's motivations transcend simple greed or murder. As a member of The Nightingales, Mercer was tasked with guarding a place called The Twilight Sepulcher, the Temple of Nocturnal. According to Gallus, he defiled the Temple and betrayed the Thieves Guild. Karliah insists that we bring this information to Brynjolf immediately. 'Rewards' *Nightingale Blade given to you by Karliah, previously owned by Gallus Desidenius. Notes *You are able to skip going right by opening the barred door using a bug: keep swaying left to right of the barred door, if you're doing it right, you'll see 'activate door bar' flashing very short instead of 'open door', now keep swaying while spamming the 'activate' button, after a few swings, you'll hear the door bar rise and you are able to open the door and pass through easily and fast. This will still allow you to obtain the Dwemer Puzzle Cube. *When initially confronted by the guards in the beginning of the museum you can choose the option "I would rather die than surrender!" Once selected, run around the guards and into the next area. In the next area you can run through the entire level to the balcony and once on the balcony nobody can follow you. This makes it possible to save about 30 minutes of sneaking and run through the level. *Once you have completed the quest - immediately upon exiting Calcelmo's tower you will notice a narrow path leading to Markarth’s waterfall – drop down it to make a quick exit. You will notice two skeletons and two Septims at the bottom. This also may be referenced by some of the guards saying "Don't trip". *Invisibility potions are useful at critical moments. *The translation key is inscribed on a stone. It must be duplicated with a Roll of Paper and piece of Charcoal, which can be found on nearby tables. *If you haven't received the key from '''Calcelmo, a good amount of sneaking is required once you gain access to the Dwemer Museum. A good way of getting past all the guards is to start sneaking immediately and head towards the left. While the two guards are talking sneak by to the left. Be cautious as there is a third guard more watching the entrance to the next area. Continue to sneak as the third guard looks away and patrols the area. *If you encounter a guard and don't want to go to jail, you can kill him without a bounty added to your head if you have conjurations do the killing for you. However a Dremora summoned using the Sanguine Rose does cause a bounty to be added. *Another way to avoid a bounty being added is to sneak and use archery to avoid being seen by the guards and allow a follower (I used Aela the Huntress) to do any final killing if needed and just remaining hidden until all the guards are dead. *There is a Larceny Target, the Dwemer Puzzle Cube, in Calcelmo's Laboratory. *Another way to obtain Calcemo's Key to the Museum is to defeat the giant frost spider Nimhe inside the Nchuand-Zel Excavation Site. This method will not make the guards in the Museum portion hostile, initially. *Upon picking up Aicantar's Spider Control Rod, Aicantar's Spider will spawn in the room, non-hostile toward the player. It is very easily destroyed by either the player or nearby guards. It cannot be revived. *Enthir's dialogue after the player gives him the rubbing has a typo, he says 'undertsand' instead of 'understand'. *There is also an easier way of doing this quest if you are a Werewolf. Simply gain legit access to the first part of the Dwarvern museum (reccemended if you have low sneak skill) so no guards will attack you while not in sneak mode. Once inside proceed to the door that is locked that leads to the second part of the museum where you are not permitted. Pick the lock and go inside. Now that you are inside, transform into a Werewolf and go on a rampage. There are several people that will need to be killed but with the Howl they should run away so you can pick them off one by one. Once they are all dead, follow the quest marker to the door to outside, go through that. Once outside go right and up to the tower. In the tower the tablet is in the middle of room and high up but fairly easy to reach. When up near the tablet, wait until the transformation wears off and then grab your roll of paper and charcoal. Copy it down and guards will come through the door, wait until none are near the door and jump down in front of the tablet, then simply sneak out. Now that you're outside, you can either sneak back through the museum or scale down the mountain. (I scaled down it, so I would recommend that for people with high health, armor or know where to land) then complete the quest normally without guards following you or having any bounty. *An additional route to sneaking through Calcelmo's Laboratory is to use the various traps within the area to your advantage. If used properly you can neutralize all guards without alerting them of your presence or gaining gold to your bounty. Each trap is activated by a valve, and each valve is located within a different part of the laboratory. When you first enter the laboratory the first trap will be a poison dart trap located in front of a closed door. To use that trap look on the right side of the column that stands in front of that door. The next valves will be in the room that the closed door leads to; one will be on the left hand side of the room and the other on the right. The valve on the right will release explosive ballistas that fire into the wall/column opposite of the valve (wait until the guard/s is/are in place as this trap is a oneshot). The valve on the left will activate a trap similar to spiked iron fence trap (the trap itself is located in front of the door you used to enter the room -which means you'll have to bait the guards into this trap as well). After clearing out this area they'll be staircase that leads up to a hallway with a path to the left and a path forward. While the valve for the next trap is located down the end of the left path, this path is blocked by guards so you must take the forward path. The path forward will lead you down a staircase to a hallway full of poison gas*; in order to make it through without dying you must duel-wield heal as you make your way to the other side of the poison hallway (you'll have to do this while sneaking or the guards will hear you). Once you make your way to other side of the poison hallway, there will be a staircase that will lead you up to the otherside of the hallway that was blocked by guards along with the valve that activates the next trap. This valve will trigger a set of three rotating propeller blades that will damage and kill any and all guards located in the hallway. After using the propeller trap to the kill the hallway guards you can continue by taking the next staircase up. The next area has no traps to activate so you'll have to sneak kill the two guards in that room. Once you sneak kill the two guards, there will be one last hallway with a barred door on the left. Sneak all the way down this short hallway and activate the valve straight in front of you. This valve will activate several flame traps and propellers blades that will either frighten or kill all security in the next room. *Updated. When sneaking through, instead of going down the poison hallway, you can drag one of the dead Markarth Guard bodies back onto a pressure plate that stops the gas from leaking out. Much quiter, just requires an added amount of patience. Good for the roleplaying types, too; for reality would dictate careful choice. *Completing this quest unlocks Enthir as a fence and if the Dragonborn chooses to join the College of Winterhold, they can sell stolen items to him. Bugs *If you complete Calcelmo's favor of killing the Frostbite Spider Nimhe, and then gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum and obtaining Calcelmo's key ''after '''''completion of this quest. You may get the quest a second time. Note, that also means you can get the Nightingale Blade a second time. However, this may cause problems with the quest Darkness Returns (may be unable to finish), therefore it's best not to do it a 2nd time. *If you complete Calcelmo's favor of killing Frostbite Spider Nimhe, and then gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum and you persuaded him to let you in for helping him with his love interest it is possible that you will get this quest a second time the next time you return to the museum, and Gallus's Journal will be 'bugged' in your inventory as a quest item. The quest is unable to be complete on the second run do to the final door at the top of the tower being closed and your key no longer working. *If you entered Mercer's house and looted Mercer's Plans before completing the quest Hard Answers, The Pursuit will not initiate upon completion of the quest Hard Answers. This can be fixed (on the PC) by resetting the quest Hard Answers to the last stage with the command TG06 70, dropping the item Mercer's Plans from your (Misc) inventory, and then talking to Karliah and completing the quest again. Do not pick up Mercer's Plans from wherever you dropped them until the quest The Pursuit is on the stage: Discover evidence of Mercer's location. (i.e. after you break into his house, simply leave and go pick back up Mercer's Plans) *For an unknown reason, if you want to speak with Enthir at the end of the quest, he doesn't want to talk with you. Use the autosave when you got into the building and it'll be good *For an unknown reason, if you gain safe entry into the Dwemer Museum, a guard will stop you and initiate the "The Forsworn Conspiracy" dialogue, "Halt you are under arrest for conspiracy and murder..." Any response chosen leads to an infinite dialogue loop where you can neither submit to the guards nor pay off the bounty resulting in a permanent 1000 bounty in the Reach and getting stuck into the dialogue loop every time a guard sees you. (Note that the bug only appeared after the quests "The Forsworn Conspiracy" and "No One Escapes Cidnha Mine" and upon entering the museum killing the guard.) *At the end of the quest, after Karliah tells you to meet her at the Ragged Flagon, Karliah will usually leave the room. However, sometimes she does not and stays in the cellar of the Frozen Hearth forever. Trying to talk to her will only trigger a small quote from her. The quest marker will still lead you to the Ragged Flagon, where all characters stand with weapons' drawn asking why you brought Karliah with you, even though she is not present. It is impossible to continue with any Thieves Guild quests if this happens, and the only solution is to reload a savegame from before you brought Enthir the notes on translating Gallus' Journal. (PS3) Category:Skyrim: Quests Category:Skyrim: Thieves Guild Quests